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Posted In: Blogosphere

Intro: It’s been more than a week since my first Dozier Internet Law Top 25 Poll, but I figured if I was ever going to do another, the time is now. The format is based on the NCAA College Football polls. The first time a domain is in Google’s results, I use the proper name. If it appears a second time, I use the domain URL. As Dozier Internet Law’s terms of use appear to forbid hyperlinks, DIL and related properties are not linked. “Others receiving votes” shows the pages that would need to appear for each of the Top 25 positions ot be hyperlinked. “Dropped from rankings” shows that that appeared last time but not this time.

Up front: The top ten is relatively stable, which is predictable given that this is a well covered news story. 7 of the top 10 results are in the same place, while only two sites are new to the top 20 (and both of those were in the last week’s top 15). The real competition is at the bottom of the poll, with 7 of the second-rate pages (11-25) being new to the poll. Some sites have fallen dramatically, but none so much as Jim River Report and jimriverreport.com, which each fell 7 places. Of the four remaining pages that are favorable to Dozier Internet Law, FindLaw fell one place and eWorldWire fell three. While it is not surprising that 6 of the pages that fell out of the poll ranked 18 and below, the stunning drop of Slashdot from #7 to not even receiving votes represents a meltdown worthy of Bill Callahan.

This weeks poll includes the story of an upset worthy of Boston College. After seeing their FindLaw entry fall a point and a press release fall out of the Top 25 midweek, Dozier rallied to maintain the status quo by beginning of morning Wednesday. Though their eWorldWire fluff piece fall off the radar, John Dozier Jr’s rarely updated personal blog took its place at #23.

The major story is Gamespot, who’s apparently censored story on Dozier inexplicably makes the top 10. Early in the week, gamespot.com also made the Top 25, but finally collapsed. No Top 25 incumbent managed to rise more than one place: this accomplishment was shared by Blog of M’Gath, CLP, and Dreaming 5GW.

The biggest fall is J-Walk Blog, which fell from #13 to not even receiving votes. Of those that remain in the Top 25, I Hate Linux and ihatelinux.blogspot both fell 11 places. In fairness, however, CodePrairie .Net, which appears to be a spidered copying of the I Hate Linux properties, take up two of the four “others receiving votes” slots.

This week’s poll is a tale of stability. Of the top 10 entry, only two are not holds. The biggest gainer is Plagiarism Today, which is apparently enjoying the popularity of a mention on Writing Thoughts. “PT” jumps 7 points to #6, while Blog of M’Gath gives way, falling 13 spaces to #18. Ars Technica is the other mover in the Top 12, jumping one position to #5.

Only one entry fell out of the Top 25: Jown W Dozier Jr’s blog. A discussion thread from Something Awful takes old #23 Dozier’s place and then some, standing tall at #12.

Because there are now only 3 Dozier-affiliated sites in the Top 25 (down from 4 in Weeks 3 and 2, and 7 in Week 1), only three pages are included in the “Others receiving votes” category. Of those three, one had dropped from the rankings last week, while the others received votes in the previous round.

This week’s poll, like most BCS weekly polls this year, is anything but stable. Five pages dropped out of the top 15, including 3 of the top 15, and including — #2 ranked cybertriallawyer.com. While Dozier’s main page is still #1, of course, the formerly second place copyright notice has dropped off the face of the world.

Its hard to find much good to say about Dozier Internet Law. No, seriously. My blog dedicated to the company’s cases, Dozier Internet Lawsuits, is stalled because I can only find one case that they won. John, if you’re reading this, please comment with a case you won other than Alyssa Linder WIPO complaint.

I know John, or at least someone with the ability to make decisions from the firm, is reading this, because shortly after last weeks’ rating, Dozier responded monstrously. (By which I mean, in a big & unethical way.) As reported on I Hate Linux, Dozier appears to be violating Google’s terms of service by creating spam “doorway” pages.

Temporarily, the tricks work. Whether Google proceeds to delist Dozier Internet Law, as it has other spammers, remains to be seen. Certainly, Google’s intellectual property lawyer is aware of Dozier’s past actions. And you can report Dozier’s misbehavior to Google, as well.

Interestingly, Dozier’s scheme succeeded in pushing off its affiliate advertising page on FindLaw out of the Top 10, and its fluff piece on Vator TV off of the list, entirely.

As I reported on Jim River Report, Brendan has more on Dozier Internet Law’s use of spam advertising. Brendan’s post has screenshots of many of the more absorb attempts to increase their google pagerank. Here’s the best:

Dozier continues to throw cash at spam advertising — doorway pages, theory pants, and the rest — in order to prevent googlers from finding out information about the company. Still, the fact that some of the spam pages are very, very low imply that the “newness” of their empty pages wears off quick. Ultimately, John Dozier may only be opening up his company and himself to liability, as these “attorney advertising” pages may eventually turn into sites for adult websites, or other illicit pursuits, if he doesn’t keep their registration up to date.